As a state with one of the largest arsenals of nuclear weapons Russia is a key participant of nuclear non-proliferation regime and defines nuclear arms control as a priority of its foreign policy. This course will discover the logic and the frames of Russian nuclear arms control policies. You will learn the historical background and the modern context of bilateral US-Russian relations in nuclear arms control and understand how these relations influence the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. You will get the basic tools for analyzing Russian defence and security policy in regards to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
Upon the completion this course the students will…
...be able to
- analyze the actions of a state from the point of view of the present treaties on nuclear arms control;
- come up with their own opinion on the problem commented by the arms control experts;
- make arguments supporting their position in discussions of nuclear arms control.
...get to know
- the technical, political and strategic aspects of agreements on nuclear arms control;
- the content of arms control treaties in which Russia participates;
- the trustworthy informational resources dedicated to the problem of nuclear arms control.
...be familiar with
- the special terminology in the area of arms control;
- the modern state and the perspectives of international policy regarding nuclear arms control;
- the basics of Russia’s nuclear arms control policy.

Taught By

Anastasia A. Malygina

Assistant Professor

Andrey Y. Pavlov

Professor

Transcript

Now let's talk about some terms describing different types of nuclear weapons. What is strategic and tactical nuclear weapon? The term strategic nuclear weapons and tactical nuclear weapons, demonstrate the role which these type of nuclear weapon can play in potential conflict. If the weapon can decisively influence the outcome of armed conflict or war, this is called strategic. If a certain weapon can play just a role on the battlefield and help some country to win a battle, not the whole war, this is tactical weapon. All these two terms are applied to nuclear weapons too. It is important to remember that the same types of weapons can play both strategic and tactical role, and can be regarded national strategies as strategic or tactical weapons. Depending on the different factors, such as geopolitical environment, combat capabilities, arsenals of the opposing party etc. Some states possessing nuclear weapons use another scale to determine what role their nuclear weapons will play. They use terms strategic or sub strategic weapons. In certain circumstances even the small short range weapon systems could play a significant role and decisively influence the course of the conflict. So in such a case, these weapons systems cannot be called tactical. Therefore, various countries regard the same types of nuclear weapons as tactical or strategic depending on their nuclear doctrine. When the Soviet Union and the United States began to negotiate their first nuclear arms control agreements, they needed kind of a background to start from. So they needed to develop a common terminology to understand what types of weapon will be limited or restricted by certain agreement, and what types of weapons will not be covered by this agreement. So this terminology was the essential part of these negotiations, because this terminology determined exactly what will be limited and what will not be limited. Also it American and later Ruso American nuclear arms control agreements address just certain type of nuclear weapons. There is no single agreement which covers all arsenals of both countries. Each bilateral agreement address specific type of a weapon. So, classification is a crucial part of each agreement and common classification was a serious problem during the negotiations. So as you know, strategic nuclear forces are the most important for any nuclear weapons state. This is why first arms control agreements developed by Soviet Union and the United States, firstly concentrated on limitation of strategic nuclear forces. But first let's understand what did they mean by strategic nuclear weapons. There were no universal classification. So they elaborated the bilateral classification which was not universal at that time. Many experts find this classification quite contradictory. Originally, the range or the distance a certain weapon can fly was taken as a main criteria for classification. And in this scale, the range of strategic intercontinental ballistic missiles was set as 5,500 kilometers. That was the range of a ballistic missile which is deployed on the territory of one state and can reach the territory of the other state. Therefore, ground launch ballistic missiles with a range of 5,500 kilometers and more were attributed to the class of strategic nuclear forces. For the ballistic or cruise missiles based on submarines or planes, the distance was set as 600 kilometers. And let's now examine what does it mean, and see some examples of the distances and ranges. For example, the distance between Moscow and Washington DC is 7,772 kilometers, and the distance between Beijing and San Francisco is 9,500 kilometers. The rest of the nuclear weapons were regarded as non-strategic or tactical. However, this classification is not universal as you know. There is another group of nuclear weapons, ground based ballistic or cruise missiles with a range between 1,000 and 5,500 kilometers, were regarded as intermediate range nuclear weapons. In some cases, this type of weapon can play a strategic role. In some cases they can play a tactical role. But officially, they are regarded as neither strategic nor tactical. This classification was developed in the framework of bilateral Soviet's American arms control negotiations and remain relevant to this day. Of course, the scale might be useful for other multilateral or bilateral arms control agreements. But, the application of the scale requires significant adaptation, and consideration of regional strategic environment and capabilities of the states involved into negotiations and agreement development.

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